There are many fighters who, on repeated occasions, state that the worst part of their job is not the fight itself, but the days before. The culprit is weight cutting, in which athletes undergo extreme dehydration to gain the stipulated kilos in each category. Joel Álvarez has already started this process, which will culminate on Friday with the official weigh-in. The goal is to weigh 156 pounds (70.7 kilos) maximum. The Phenomenon measures 1.90 meters, making him one of the fighters who the more this decline suffers. In fact, he has already expressed his interest in moving up a division after a couple of fights in the lightweight division.
The hard moment of dehydration, where you can see those shocking images of the athletes in the sauna, will not occur until Thursday. However, this is such a complex process that it is prepared weeks in advance. David Rojas, nutritionist for Joel and other fighters like Dani Bárez, explains to us what it consists of: «On Monday carbohydrates were cut so that the body empties glycogen, and the body spends stored resources and empties itself progressively. ».
During these days, David reveals that the water and sodium load is increased to have stable blood pressure. Today, Wednesday, sodium is cut, water intake is lowered and two workouts are performed. All this to get as close as possible to the weight before dehydration, which will be on Thursday. «If all goes well, tomorrow Thursday it will dawn some four kilos above», comments David confidently. If this is achieved, we would be facing the same parameters as Joel’s previous fight, the one he held in Abu Dhabi and in which he gave the weight without problem. «In Abu Dhabi you would be surprised to see how he hit the mitts when activating the cutout, that most people are lazy and such. “He gave him some wafers that said ‘I wish I wasn’t the other one,'” he recalls.
And that same Thursday night the complicated part begins. Dehydration occursthe sweat suits, the sauna… Although David insists that it won’t be complicated for Joel if he only has to lose four kilos before Friday at 9:00 a.m. (Tampa time), when the training will begin. official weighing. This size of the man from Gijón has caused a stir in recent hours after he confirmed that will move up to welterweightsomething that does not worry your nutritionist. «Joel could naturally reach 94 kilos. It would take away a lot of stress,” confirms David. However, while competing at lightweight, the best way to reach the allowed limit is to maintain a stable weight of “82.5 or 83 most months of the year,” he maintains.
But you have to focus on the present, on marking those 155 pounds to face Drakkar Klose. Although the latest cuts have gone perfectly, it is always a tense moment that must be resolved. But David Rojas, who knows Joel’s body more than anyone, makes a call to calm. “The weight is controlled,” he says.
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